John Nelson and the Sound of One Painter Clapping

Summary

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John Nelson's paintings suggest, but they don't tell. Collaged bits of paper peek through sanded layers of acrylic paint. Unreadable words, often seen in reverse because they were transferred onto the paintings from old newspapers and other printed material, hint at a message and then don't deliver. Items that have meaning only to their owners are trapped in layers of translucent paint. Painted images so simple that they have become pictograms sit atop a sea of almost-meaningful stuff.

"It's about knowing and not knowing," Nelson said during a telephone interview from his home in Tempe, Ariz. "We are such an amalgamation of biology and psychology that it is impossible to pinpoint what motivates us. We can certainly talk about it, but in the end it is a mystery."

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Extract

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John Nelson and the Sound of One Painter Clapping

A show of Nelson's paintings, prints and sculpture started last week and will be at Chiaroscuro Gallery through Aug. 25. Entering the gallery is like flipping through a mad bookseller's ephemera bin. A playing card, a piece of rice ...

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